ALEXANDER  GOLDSTEIN 


ABRAHAM  [LINCOLN 

and 

MARY  OWEN 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

and 

MARY  OWEN 


THREE  LETTERS 

Lincoln  to  Mrs.  0.  H.  Browning 
I.  N,  Arnold  to  0.  H.  Browning 
0.  H.  Browning  to  I.  N.  Arnold  ] 


Limited  to  150  copies 
Privately  Printed 

BARKER'S  ART  STORE,  Springfield,  Illinoii 
1922 


E457 


FOREWORD 

It  has  been  said  of  Abraham  Lincoln  by  those  who  knew 
him  intimately,  that  while  he  was  naturally  a  sad  man,  no  one 
was  quicker  than  he  to  see  and  enjoy  the  ridiculous  in  every 
thing.  That  he  was  fond  of  story  telling,  no  one  will  deny,  and 
we  are  fortunate  in  having  his  own  word  for  it,  that  he  told 
stories  "not  so  much  for  the  story  itself,  as  for  its  purpose  or 
effect."  But  there  were  moments  when  he  deliberately  sought 
diversion  in  story  telling  both  for  the  relief  it  afforded  him, 
and  for  the  entertainment  it  afforded  his  audience.  My  motive 
in  again  putting  in  print  Mr.  Lincoln's  humorous  account  of  his 
love  affair  with  Mary  Owen  is  not  at  all  the  publication  of 
the  letter  itself,  but  to  afford  an  opportunity  of  giving  to  the 
public  two  letters  that  have  never  before  appeared  in  print, 
and  that  fully  explain  how  Mr.  Lincoln  came  to  write  the  story 
to  Mrs.  Browning,  at  the  same  time  exonerating  him  from  any 
blame  for  its  publication.  The  three  letters  that  follow  were 
at  one  time  in  my  possession  and  I  will  vouch  for  their  genuine 
ness  in  every  particular.  /^7__-^"  sp 


Lincoln  to  Mrs.  Browning 

Springfield,  April  1,  1838. 
Dear  Madam : — 

Without  apologizing  for  being  egotistical,  J  snail  make,  the 
history  of  so  much  of  my  life  as  has  elapsed  since  I  saw  you 
the  subject  of  this  letter.  And,  by  the  way,  I  now  discover 
that,  in  order  to  give  a  full  and  intelligible  account  of  the  things 
I  have  done  and  suffered  since  I  saw  you,  I  shall  necessarily 
have  to  relate  some  that  happened  before. 

It  was,  then,  in  the  autumn  of  1836  that  a  married  lady  of 
my  acquaintance  and  who  was  a  great  friend  of  mine,  being 
about  to  pay  a  visit  to  her  father  and  other  relatives  residing 
in  Kentucky,  proposed  to  me  that  on  her  return  she  would  bring 
a  sister  of  hers  with  her  on  condition  that  I  would  engage  to 
become  her  brother-in-law  with  all  convenient  despatch.  I,  of 
course,  accepted  the  proposal,  for  you  know  I  could  not  have 
done  otherwise,  had  I  really  been  averse  to  it;  but  privately, 
between  you  and  me  I  was  most  confoundedly  well  pleased  with 
the  project.  I  had  seen  the  said  sister  some  three  years  before, 
thought  her  intelligent  and  agreeable,  and  I  saw  no  good  objec 
tion  to  plodding  life  through  hand  in  hand  with  her.  Time 
passed  on,  the  lady  took  her  journey,  and  in  due  time  returned, 
sister  in  company  sure  enough.  This  stomached*  me  a  little; 
for  it  appeared  to  me  that  her  coming  so  readily  showed  that 
she  was  a  trifle  too  willing ;  but,  on  reflection,  it  occurred  to  me 
that  she  might  have  been  prevailed  on  by  her  married  sister  to 
come,  without  anything  concerning  me  ever  having  been  men 
tioned  to  her;  and  so  I  concluded  that,  if  no  other  objection 
presented  itself,  I  would  consent  to  waive  this.  All  this  oc 
curred  to  me  on  hearing  of  her  arrival  in  the  neighborhood ;  for, 
be  it  remembered,  I  had  not  yet  seen  her,  except  about  three 
years  previous,  as  above  mentioned.  In  a  few  days  we  had 
an  interview ;  and,  although  I  had  seen  her  before,  she  did  not 
look  as  my  imagination  had  pictured  her.  I  knew  she  was  over 
size,  but  she  now  appeared  a  fair  match  for  Falstaff.  I  knew 

9S9824 


she  was  called  an  "old  maid,"  and  I  felt  no  doubt  of  the  truth 
of  at  least  half  of  the  appellation ;  but  now,  when  I  beheld  her, 
I  could  not  for  my  life  avoid  thinking  of  my  mother ;  and  thisr 
not  from  withered  features,  for  her  skin  was  too  full  of  fat  to 
permit  of  its  contracting  into  wrinkles,  but  from  her  want  of 
teeth,  weather-beaten  appearance  in  general,  and  from  a  kind 
of  notion  that  ran  in  my  head  that  nothing  could  have  com 
menced  at  the  size  of  infancy  and  reached  her  present  bulk  in 
less  than  thirty-five  or  forty  years ;  and,  in  short,  I  was  not  at 
all  pleased  with  her.  But  what  could  I  do  ?  I  had  told  her  sis 
ter  I  would  take  her  for  better  or  for  worse;  and  I  made  a 
point  of  honor  and  conscience  in  all  things  to  stick  to  my  word, 
especially  if  others  had  been  induced  to  act  on  it,  which  in  this 
case  I  had  no  doubt  they  had ;  for  I  was  now  fairly  convinced 
that  no  other  man  on  earth  would  have  her,  and  hence  the  con 
clusion  that  they  were  bent  on  holding  me  to  my  bargain. 
"Well,"  thought  I,  "I  have  said  it,  and,  be  the  consequences 
what  they  may,  it  shall  not  be  my  fault  if  I  fail  to  do  it."  At 
once  I  determined  to  consider  her  my  wife ;  and,  this  done,  all 
my  powers  of  discovery  were  put  to  work  in  search  of  perfec 
tions  in  her  which  might  be  fairly  set  off  against  her  defects. 
I  tried  to  imagine  her  handsome,  which,  but  for  her  unfor 
tunate  corpulency,  was  actually  true.  Exclusive  of  this,  no 
woman  that  I  have  ever  seen  has  a  finer  face.  I  also  tried  to 
convince  myself  that  the  mind  was  much  more  to  be  valued 
than  the  person ;  and  in  this  she  was  not  inferior,  as  I  could 
discover,  to  any  with  whom  I  had  been  acquainted. 

Shortly  after  this,  without  coming  to  any  positive  under 
standing  with  her,  I  set  out  for  Vandalia,  when  and  where  you 
first  saw  me.  During  my  stay  there  I  had  letters  from  her 
which  did  not  change  my  opinion  of  either  her  intellect  or  in 
tention,  but  on  the  contrary  confirmed  it  in  both. 

All  this  while,  although  I  was  fixed,  "firm  as  the  surge- 
repelling  rock,"  in  my  resolution,  I  found  I  was  continually  re 
penting  the  rashness  which  had  led  me  to  make  it.  Through 
life,  I  have  been  in  no  bondage,  either  real  or  imaginary,  from 
the  thralldom  of  which  I  so  much  desired  to  be  free.  After  my 


return  home,  I  saw  nothing  to  change  my  opinion  of  her  in  any 
particular.  She  was  the  same,  and  so  was  I.  I  now  spent  my 
time  in  planning  how  I  might  get  along  through  life  after  my 
contemplated  change  of  circumstances  should  have  taken  place, 
and  how  I  might  procrastinate  the  evil  day  for  a  time,  which  I 
really  dreaded  as  much,  perhaps  more,  than  an  Irishman  does 
the  halter. 

After  all  my  suffering  upon  this  deeply  interesting  sub 
ject,  here  I  am,  wholly,  unexpectedly,  completely,  out  of  the 
"scrape" ;  and  now  I  want  to  know  if  you  can  guess  how  I  got 
out  of  it — out,  clear,  in  every  sense  of  the  term ;  no  violation  of 
word,  honor,  or  conscience.  I  don't  believe  you  can  guess,  and 
so  I  might  as  well  tell  you  at  once.  As  the  lawyer  says,  it  was 
done  in  the  manner  following,  to- wit :  After  I  had  delayed  the 
matter  as  long  as  I  thought  I  could  in  honor  do  (which,  by  the 
way,  had  brought  me  round  into  the  last  fall),  I  concluded  I 
might  as  well  bring  it  to  a  consummation  without  further  de 
lay  ;  and  so  I  mustered  my  resolution,  and  made  the  proposal  to 
her  direct ;  but,  shocking  to  relate,  she  answered,  No.  At  first 
I  supposed  she  did  it  through  an  affectation  of  modesty,  which 
I  thought  but  ill  became  her  under  the  peculiar  circumstances 
of  her  case ;  but  on  my  renewal  of  the  charge,  I  found  she  re 
pelled  it  with  greater  firmness  than  before.  I  tried  it  again 
and  again,  but  with  the  same  success,  or  rather  with  the  same 
want  of  success. 

I  finally  was  forced  to  give  it  up ;  at  which  I  very  unex 
pectedly  found  myself  mortified  almost  beyond  endurance.  I 
was  mortified,  it  seemed  to  me,  in  a  hundred  different  ways. 
My  vanity  was  deeply  wounded  by  the  reflection  that  I  had 
been  too  stupid  to  discover  her  intentions,  and  at  the  same  time 
never  doubting  that  I  understood  them  perfectly ;  and  also  that 
she,  whom  I  had  taught  myself  to  believe  nobody  else  would 
have,  had  actually  rejected  me  with  all  my  fancied  greatness. 
And,  to  cap  the  whole,  I  then  for  the  first  time  began  to  sus 
pect  that  I  was  really  a  little  in  love  with  her.  But  let  it  all 
go.  I'll  try  and  outlive  it.  Others  have  been  made  fools  of  by 
the  girls ;  but  this  can  never  with  truth  be  said  of  me.  I  most 


emphatically,  in  this  instance,  made  a  fool  of  myself.  I  have 
now  come  to  the  conclusion  never  again  to  think  of  marrying, 
and  for  this  reason :  I  can  never  be  satisfied  with  any  one  who 
would  be  blockhead  enough  to  have  me. 

When  you  receive  this,  write  me  a  long  yarn  about  some 
thing  to  amuse  me.    Give  my  respects  to  Mr.  Browning. 

Your  sincere  friend, 

A.  Lincoln. 
Mrs.  0.  H.  Browning. 


*The  word  "stomached"  was  misread  by  Lamon  and  printed  in  his 
book  to  read  "astonished," — a  mistake  that  has  been  repeated  in  every 
publication  of  the  letter  until  this,  when  it  is  given  exactly  as  Lincoln 
wrote  it.— H.  E.  B. 


Arnold  to  Browning 

Chicago,  Nov.  22,  1872. 
My  Dear  Mr.  Browning : 

I  know  your  kind  heart  will  rejoice  to  learn  that  I  am 
again  under  my  own  roof,  seated  by  my  own  fireside. 

I  have  just  been  looking  over  Lamons'  book  upon  Mr. 
Lincoln.  Many  things  in  it  shock  me,  as  I  think  they  do  every 
true  friend  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  when  he  calls  him  a  "wily  poli 
tician,"  "cold,"  "impassive,"  when  he  charges  him  with  dis 
carding  and  forgetting  his  friends  (p.  481),  "unhospitable" 
(482),  "ungrateful  selfish"  (483),  he  states  what  in  every  in 
stance  is  untrue,  but  not  only  so,  Lincoln  possessed  the  very 
opposite  qualities.  How  could  he  charge  him  with  irreverance 
and  infidelity  when  he  remembers  the  sublime  prayer  with 
which  he  left  Springfield,  and  the  deep  religious  feeling  which 
pervades  all  his  writings  and  speeches  to  the  day  of  his  death  ? 
Do  not  you  and  I  owe  it  to  the  memory  of  the  dead  to  vindicate 
him  from  these  charges  ? 

Most  of  his  book,  it  seems  to  me  is  filled  up  with  trival  and 
insignificant  matters  which  only  prurient  curiosity  would  care 
for  and  without  any  appreciation  of  the  noblest  traits  of  his 
character.  I  have  just  been  reading  a  letter  to  Mrs.  Brown 
ing  (pages  181-182)  which  he  says  it  was  an  "extremely  pain 
ful  duty  to  publish."  If  the  letter  is  genuine  I  cannot  conceive 
thejnotives  which  made  it  his  duty  to  publish  it.  If  you  feel 
at  liberty  to  tell  me,  I  should  be  very  glad  to  know  the  history 
of  this  letter.  Of  course  I  should  not  use  anything  you  may 
write  without  your  permission.  I  should  be  very  glad  if  you 
would  write  me  fully  in  regard  to  Mr.  Lincoln,  as  you  knew  him 
at  Vandalia,  and  Springfield  and  at  Washington.  You  were 
much  with  him,  I  remember,  at  the  time  of  Willie's  death. 
Do  you  know  what  his  religious  views  and  feelings  were  then  ? 
I  have  been  of  the  impression  from  some  things  which  oc 
curred,  that  he  was  under  very  deep  religious  feelings.  Do  you 
know  whether  the  statement  so  generally  made  that  he  was 


while  at  Washington,  in  the  habit  of  prayer  and  frequent  read 
ing  of  the  Bible  as  a  religious  book,  was  true  ? 

I  hope  you  may  find  time  to  write  a  full  reply. 

With  kind  regards  to  Mrs.  Browning  in  which  my  family 
join,  I  am, 

Very  truly  yours, 

Isaac  N.  Arnold. 
Hon.  0.  H.  Browning. 


Browning  to  Arnold 

Quincy,  111.,  November  25,  1872. 
Dear  Sir: 

I  am  just  in  receipt  of  yours  of  the  22nd  instant.  I  have 
carefully  read  the  whole  of  Col.  Lamons'  life  of  Mr.  Lincoln. 
It  contains  many  things  which  I  regret  to  see  in  print.  Admit 
ting  them  to  be  true,  their  publication,  was,  to  say  the  least, 
injudicious.  Many  things  which  are  stated  in  the  book  were 
not  necessary  to  the  elucidation,  or  full  comprehension  of  Mr. 
Lincoln's  character,  and  should  have  been  omitted.  It  is  now 
almost  forty  years  since  I  first  made  his  acquaintance.  From 
that  time  till  his  death  our  relations  were  very  intimate.  I 
think  more  so  than  is  usual.  Our  friendship  was  close,  warm, 
and,  I  believe  sincere.  I  know  mine  for  him  was,  and  I  never 
had  reason  to  distrust  his  for  me.  Our  relations  to  my 
knowledege  were  never  interrupted  for  a  moment.  I  can  recall 
no  circumtsance  in  his  life  which  would  justify  a  suspicion  of 
treachery  to  his  friends.  Of  his  religious  opinions  I  am  not 
able  to  speak.  It  is  more  than  probable  we  have  conversed 
upon  religious  subjects ;  but  if  we  did,  I  am  not  able  to  call  back 
to  my  recollection  anything  which  was  said  in  such  conversa 
tions,  with  such  distinctness  as  to  warrant  me  in  repeating  it. 
He  held  a  pew  in  the  Presbyterian  Church,  of  which  Rev.  Dr. 
Gurley  was  pastor,  and  often  attended  service  there.  He  not 
infrequently  sent  his  carriage,  of  Sunday  mornings  with  a  re 
quest  that  I  would  accompany  him  and  Mrs.  Lincoln  to  church. 

Sometimes,  after  services  were  over,  I  would  return  with 
them  to  the  White  House  to  dinner,  and  spend  the  afternoon 
with  him  in  the  library.  On  such  occasions  I  have  seen  him 
reading  the  Bible,  but  never  knew  of  his  engaging  in  any  other 
act  of  devotion.  He  did  not  invoke  a  blessing  at  table,  nor  did 
he  have  family  prayers.  What  private  religious  devotions  may 
have  been  customary  with  him  I  do  not  know.  I  have  no 
knowledge  of  any. 

At  the  time  of  his  little  son  Willie's  death,  Mrs.  Browning 


and  I  were  out  of  the  city,  but  returned  to  Washington  on  the 
evening  of  the  same  day  of  his  death.  The  President  and  Mrs. 
Lincoln  sent  their  carriage  for  us  immediately  upon  learning 
that  we  were  in  the  city,  and  we  went  to  the  White  House,  and 
remained  with  them  about  a  week.  His  son  Tad  was  also  very 
ill  at  the  time,  and  I  watched  with  him  several  consecutive 
nights.  The  President  was  in  the  room  with  me  a  portion  of 
each  night. 

He  was  in  very  deep  distress  at  the  loss  of  Willie,  and 
agitated  with  apprehensions  of  a  fatal  termination  of  Tad's 
illness ;  but  what  his  religious  views  and  feelings  were  I  do  not 
know.  I  heard  no  expression  of  them.  My  impression  is  that, 
during  the  time  I  remained  at  the  White  House  on  this  occasion, 
he  had  several  interviews  with  the  Rev.  Dr.  Gurley  but  what 
occurred  between  them  never  came  to  my  knowledge.  Dr. 
Gurley  is  now  dead,  and  I  am  unable  to  say  whether  he  left  any 
record  of  his  conferences  with  the  President. 

I  know  that  Mr.  Lincoln  was  a  firm  believer  in  a  superin 
tending  and  overruling  Providence,  and  in  super-natural 
agencies  and  events.  I  know  that  he  believed  the  destinies  of 
men  were,  or  at  least,  that  his  own  destiny  was  shaped  and  con 
trolled  by  an  intelligence  and  power  higher  and  greater  than 
his  own,  and  which  he  could  neither  control  nor  thwart.  To 
what  extent  he  believed  in  the  revelations  and  miracles  of 
the  Bible  and  Testament,  or  whether  he  believed  in  them  at  all, 
I  am  not  prepared  to  say;  but  I  do  know  that  he  was  not  a 
scoffer  at  religion.  During  our  long  and  intimate  acquaintance 
and  intercourse  I  have  no  recollection  of  ever  having  heard  an 
irreverant  word  fall  from  his  lips. 

The  letter  published  in  the  biography,  purporting  to  have 
been  written  to  Mrs.  Browning,  is  genuine.  In  the  winter  of 
1836-7  we  were  all  at  Vandalia,  then  the  seat  of  government  of 
the  state.  I  was  a  member  of  the  Senate  and  Mr.  Lincoln  of 
the  House  of  Representatives.  He  and  I  had  been  previously 
acquainted,  but"  he  then  first  made  the  acquaintance  of  Mrs. 
Browning.  We  all  boarded  at  the  same  house.  He  was  very 
fond  of  Mrs.  Browning's  society,  and  spent  many  of  his  eve- 


nings  and  much  of  his  leisure  time,  at  our  rooms.  We  were  all 
there  together  again  in  the  winter  of  1837-8,  the  same  rela 
tions  subsisting  between  us  as  during  the  preceeding  winter. 
After  our  return  home,  in  the  spring  of  1838  the  letter  in  ques 
tion  was  received.  We  were  very  much  amused  with  it,  but 
both  Mrs.  Browning  and  myself  supposed  it  to  be  a  fiction ;  a 
creation  of  his  brain ;  one  of  his  funny  stories,  without  any 
foundation  of  fact  to  sustain  it.  It  was  laid  away,  among 
other  letters,  and  forgotten.  In  1861  I  was  overhauling  a  cor 
respondence  which  had  been  accumulating  for  years  and  de 
stroying  many  hundreds  of  letters  which  I  regarded  as  no 
longer  of  any  value.  This  with  other  letters  of  Mr.  Lincoln's 
was  then  exhumed,  and  saved  from  the  common  fate,  only  be 
cause  it  was  amusing  and  written  a  long  time  ago,  in  the  very 
characteristic  style  of  the  then  President. 

We  permitted  a  few  of  our  friends,  both  here  and  at 
Washington,  to  see  it,  merely  as  a  matter  of  curiosity  and 
amusement ;  we  still  laboring  under  the  impression  that  it  was 
pure  romance. 

I  think  it  was  in  1862  that  a  gentleman  who  was  collecting 
materials  for  a  biography  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  having  heard  of  this 
letter,  called  on  Mrs.  Browning  in  the  city  and  requested  a  copy. 
She  declined  to  give  it.  The  first  time  she  was  at  the  Presi 
dent's,  only  a  few  days  after,  she  informed  him  of  the  re 
quest  that  had  been  made  and  asked  him  what  he  had  to  say  in 
regard  to  it.  She  then  first  learned  from  him  that  the  narrative 
of  the  letter  was  not  fiction  but  a  true  account  of  an  incident  in 
actual  life.  He  added  that  others  of  the  actors  than  himself 
were  still  living;  that  it  might  be  painful  to  them  to  see  the 
letter  in  print ;  and  that  on  their  account  he  desired  it  should 
be  withheld  for  the  present ;  but  that  hereafter,  when  those 
most  interested  should  have  passed  away,  she  might  exercise 
her  own  discretion.  After  the  death  of  Mr.  Lincoln  one  of  his 
most  intimate  friends,  Col.  Lamon,  who  was  on  confidential  re 
lations  with  the  President  through  the  entire  period  of  his  ad 
ministration,  was  permitted  at  his  earnest  request,  to  take  a 
copy ;  but  upon  the  distinct  understanding  that  it  should  never 


be  used  in  connection  with  Mrs.  Browning's  name.  I  do  not 
see  how  Mr.  Lincoln  can  justly  be  censured  for  writing  the  let 
ter.  It  was  written  in  the  confidence  of  friendship,  with  no 
purpose,  or  expectation,  that  it  would  ever  become  public.  No 
names  were  mentioned,  nor  was  it  likely  that  any  other  name 
than  his  own  would  ever  be  known  in  connection  with  it.  His 
only  object  seemed  to  be  to  amuse  a  friend  at  his  own  expense. 

No  injury  was  done  to  anyone  by  the  mere  writing  of  the 
letter,  nor  would  there  have  been  by  its  publication,  unaccom 
panied  by  the  explanation  given  by  his  biographer;  and  for 
these  Mr.  Lincoln  ought  not  to  be  held  responsible. 

Neither  Mrs.  Browning  nor  myself  ever  knew  from  him 
who  the  lady  referred  to  in  the  letter  was.  Of  course  neither 
of  us  ever  asked  him,  nor  did  he  ever  inform  us.  Jf  the  feel 
ings  of  others  have  been  injured,  I  think  it  is  chargeable  upon 
the  biographer,  and  not  upon  Mr.  Lincoln. 

I  am  at  present,  much  occupied  with  professional  duties, 
and  have  written  you  hastily,  but  have,  I  believe  answered  all 
your  inquiries  as  fully  as  I  am  now  capable  of  doing.  It  gives 
us  great  pleasure  to  hear  that  you  are  again  comfortably  set 
tled  in  your  own  home. 

Mrs.  Browning  and  Emma  unite  with  me  in  kindest  re 
gards  to  Mrs.  Arnold,  your  daughters  and  yourself. 

Truly  your  friend, 

0.  H.  Browning. 
Hon  Isaac  N.  Arnold, 
Chicago,  111. 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 
LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 
Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


"WlltS 

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LD  21A-50m-8,'57 
(C8481slO)476B 


General  Library 

University  of  California 

Berkeley 


pamphlet 

Binder 
Gaylord  Bros.,  Inc. 

Stockton,  Calif. 


U.C.  BERKELEY  LIBRARIES 


itm 


